Properties billed and metering rates

Properties billed

The table below shows the number of properties billed (households and non-households) and the population served for the water and sewerage services in 2010-11. All information has been rounded to the nearest 100,000 for water and sewerage companies, or the nearest 10,000 for water only companies.

Metering rates

We believe metering is the fairest way to charge for water, ensuring customers pay for the volume of water they actually use. Having a water meter incentivises customers to reduce their use of water, often by around 10-15%.

Companies can include programmes of selective metering as part of their options to balance supply and demand within their water resources management plans. Some companies are currently rolling out significant metering programmes as part of their efforts to balance supply and demand. By 2014-15, two companies aim to have more than 90% of their domestic customers metered. Providing appropriate information and support to customers to inform and help their transition to metered billing is key to these programmes, including consideration of transitional and social tariffs.

The table below shows the percentage of households who will be metered by 2014-15.

Data

Water (properties billed, in millions)

Sewerage (properties billed, in millions)

Water (population served, in millions)

Sewerage (population served, in millions)

% of household customers metered by 2014-15

Anglian

2.0

2.5

4.4

6.0

81%

Dŵr Cymru

1.3

1.3

2.9

3.2

41%

Northumbrian

1.9

1.2

4.3

2.7

43%

Severn Trent

3.3

3.8

7.7

8.7

42%

South West

0.8

0.7

1.7

1.6

79%

Southern

1.0

1.8

2.3

4.4

92%

Thames

3.5

5.4

8.8

14.0

37%

United Utilities

3.0

3.0

6.9

7.0

38%

Wessex

0.6

1.1

1.3

2.7

58%

Yorkshire

2.1

2.1

4.9

5.0

48%

Bristol

1.24

—

3.16

—

44%

Affinity Water* (central)

0.07

—

0.16

—

71%

Affinity Water* (east)

0.07

—

0.16

—

90%

Affinity Water* (southeast)

0.50

—

1.16

—

46%

Cambridge

0.13

—

0.31

—

70%

Dee Valley

0.12

—

0.26

—

58%

Portsmouth

0.30

—

0.66

—

24%

Sembcorp Bournemouth

0.20

—

0.43

—

66%

South East

0.86

—

2.03

—

68%

South Staffs

0.54

—

1.28

—

35%

Sutton & East Surrey

0.27

—

0.65

—

47%

*Formerly Veolia Water Central, Veolia Water East and Veolia Water Southeast.